Changing the Face of Yoga Podcast

Hosted by Stephanie Cunningham, a yoga teacher herself who is committed to sharing yoga with anyone, especially the over 50's.
Stephanie created this podcast to share how yoga can be practiced by anyone with amazing benefits. Yoga teachers themselves will share their stories; discussing why they teach, who they teach, how students benefit. Every fortnight or so, we will release a new episode. We will talk with teachers about teaching children, curvy bodies, the elderly but also those that each yoga to support students with diabetes, cancer and mental health issues.

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2:15 Adjustments – many of us were taught hands-on adjustments to make the student’s body take a certain shape. Christine prefers supporting the student to go into their own body and learn to make their own adjustment and correct their own movement. Her philosophy is to a) help the meet their own yoga goals and b) how to support them to realise what they need to do make their own adjustments. Christine uses the Hakomi (a body-based therapy) precepts of mindfulness, non-violence and organicity to direct her adjustments.

8:15 Walking toward experiment. Two individuals each go into mindfulness, one quite deeply. The other one walks toward the other one. When in mindfulness, one is highly sensitized to movement and proximity. Students in a yoga class are usually relaxed and will be in some form of mindfulness and so very aware of movement and proximity.

16:25 Student led yoga – teacher supports them in meeting the student’s yoga goals and not the teacher’s goals. Teacher needs to be aware that cues will be interpreted differently by different students. Teachers need to learn how to track their students to see if a cue is causing them to react negatively.

21:00 Adjustments for safety. When is it appropriate to touch a student? Need consent, trust, and a sense of safety before adjusting. What is your reason for and how to touch a student to make an adjustment. May touch to show a student a part of their body that they are not aware of or to emphasize a movement that is dysfunctional. But a light touch or tap is sufficient.

27:00 Bigger adjustments may be needed if the movement disrupts the student’s ability to understand where their body is and how it moves (i.e., arms overhead and how to externally and internally rotate the arms). If the teacher puts the student in the pose, then they haven’t learned anything.

29:00 May not be able to do the movement because they don’t have the neural pathways to do so. Students may not be aware of habitual movements and don’t know where there body is in those movements.

35:07 2nd toe lift: after warming up the toes, lift only the 2nd toe. Because most of us have worn shoes all of our life, we don’t have the neural pathways to move our toes individually. Doing the 2nd toe lift builds neural pathways (can help by having a finger lift up the toe) and then have to work on “training” to build strength to lift the toe without the finger.

35:45 Fine tuning our tactile touch. Just touching and gently moving the student to the extent that the student does not resist. Don’t push to the resistance and beyond – this is where injury can happen.

1:50 Began with corporate yoga and was pregnant while she was teaching. Some female students became uncomfortable and didn’t come to class as the baby grew. One student said it was painful to see someone so pregnant as she had had great difficulty becoming pregnant. Vinaya started studying Gynocologic Ayurveda in depth and found what the ancient teachings said about fertility Western Medicine solves symptoms, rarely the root cause. Vinaya works with clients using the Ayurvedic practices to develop a healthy uterus, some of her clients have become pregnant and had healthy babies.

Birth control and infertility treatments affect the hormones in many ways and are deleterious to fertility. Pranyama is good for vata imbalances and many fertility issues are based in vata imbalances.

11:50 Vinaya likes to work with women in their 40’s because they have tried everything that Western Medicine has to offer and are looking beyond that paradigm. Western Medicine prescribes birth control pills for teenagers with heavy periods, women experiencing menopause and those with endometriosis. Long term use of birth control can have very deleterious affects on a women’s fertility.

14:45 Vinayam – a humble approach to yoga. Vinaya created this type of yoga based on specific poses for each day of the week. Each day of the week is associated with a planet in Hinduism. Each planet has different aspects and the yoga poses are chosen to support their aspects.

21:50 Vinaya’s journey from corporate yoga to fertility support. Her original training was for young people in their 20’s but her students needed a different kind of yoga. Started studying classical Ayurveda. She looked at fields where Western Medicine has few prescriptions to offer individuals like gynecology, dermatology, and obstetrics. She studied Ayurveda in great depth in these areas. Individuals need to understand the causes of their conditions/diseases not just the symptoms.

30:40 Western medicine works with fear so that people give up their body, mind and spirit to the doctor to fix. Gurus can do something similar; they want control also but use a person’s beliefs and trust. Each individual has to trust their own body, mind, spirit and find support for it to heal itself. And heredity has little effect on health, but rather the patterns of thought that have been passed down from parents or grandparents have more effect on health.

1:06 Introduction to Ashley Adams, owner of Fit Yoga Factory and author of “Zen and the Wonder Woman Complex” - a book to help mums build their tool kit for self-care.

2:12 Ashley defines building a community as creating a safe, comfortable space. Getting rid of whatever preconceptions someone may have of yoga teachers and yoga studios. She brings a real life perspective to yoga classes and yoga studios. She has a healthy mix of students from 13 to 73. Lots of moms that if they have to can bring their children to class so they don’t miss their yoga. Don’t have to be perfect, look perfect, or wear perfect yoga clothes. Her community helps her stay a real person. Its not a “perfectly perfect studio” or “perfectly perfect” yoga teachers, but rather real people who like yoga.

7:05 Ashley’s book – “Zen and the Wonder Women Complex” is the written version of what she is trying to achieve in the studio of being real and accepting that some days can be challenging. The book gives tips and tools on how to start each day with balance and intention.

9:15 Ashley started with online yoga classes (Leader of the Yoga Mom Rebellion) and many of her viewers asked where they could take classes with her in person. So she explored starting a yoga studio in her hometown of Tarpon Springs, FL in the USA. She found a space and opened full time in February 2018. One of her unique classes is Wine Down Wednesday where they have a short class, drink some wine and share a potluck dinner. This can breakdown the perception of what a “yoga studio owner” is like to build a community of like-minded individuals.

13:30 Ashley’s tips on building community through a yoga studio: a) patience and b) accept that you are running a yoga studio and have two hats – a yoga hat and a business hat. Know the differences between those two and what are your strengths and weaknesses. Find others to help with your weaknesses while you use your strengths to build the studio and the business.

15:30 Started the studio because teaching a variety of venues, caused chaos in her life. She wanted to incorporate into her job the ability to fund her yoga dreams of continuing yoga education. She found a place to have the studio and she can do podcasts, classes and workshops, etc., out of one place. Wanted to stay in the yoga world instead of moving between the yoga world and the world of another job.

18:00 Ashley and her teachers have developed systems to allow anyone to take any class regardless of experience or ability. They try to direct people to appropriate classes: emphasising that the class is not ready for you yet instead of you aren’t able to do this class. They modify and work with anyone (including pre-class one on one’s) to help students find the safest way to do yoga in the class they want to attend. Acceptance is a subject brought up often to help people accept where their body is on the that day.

25:05 Ashley’s studio has multiple classes and 3-4 teachers. She started with a full, consistent schedule so that current and prospective students know she will be open and able to provide a variety of classes. Run’s regular hours 5:30 am to sometimes 9:30 pm on the weekdays and only one class on the weekends.

3:15: In 2009, moved from Hawaii to Boulder, Colorado USA. Wanted to teach more marginalised populations and give back. Started teaching in women’s shelter and a client helped her establish a non-profit charity. In addition to providing yoga to marginalised communities, the charity also wanted to provide teacher training to individuals from these communities.

Nancy teaches at the VA at a women’s trauma unit (for those sexually assaulted in the military). As individuals left the program they asked Nancy for recommendations for where they could take yoga in their community. She didn’t know and started the Yoga Impact teacher training. Students will feel more comfortable if the teacher understands what the students have experienced. As a result, in 2017, Yoga Impact teacher training graduated 17 people of color and one week remains for the teacher training offered on the Navajo Reservation. Some trainees have already been teaching in the community.

Yoga Impact provides resources – both monetarily and other resources – for teachers that have a vision for their community that improves wellness. As an example, Nancy used to teach at the Boulder Women’s jail and when a student finished her sentence, she asked Nancy how she could take teacher training. Yoga Impact funder her training and she has taken over the yoga classes at the jail, works with the parole officers and others that provide support to help students with the transitions from jail to living on their own.

9:45 Nancy and the board are currently expanding Yoga Impact’s vision to help support new teachers as they begin to teach in their communities. It may include financial support, mentoring, or training on how to be an entrepreneur to start wellness communities.

10:44 They want to expand the reach of Yoga Impact into more communities by working with small business, corporations, and entrepreneurs to expand their financial base.

13:50 There are a variety of sponsorships to support Yoga Impact: individual sponsorships, small business and corporate, and yoga studio sponsorships are available.

17:57 How to work with corporations or entrepreneurs. Providing a well thought out program that targets the corporation’s or entrepreneur’s community with a specific request that requires little corporate effort is often successful.

20:56 What is the contribution of Yoga Impact? There is a large community of connected people who want to serve – a network of people who want to reach out and be part of the upliftment of humankind.